The worst thing about having a flight cancelled isn't the battle to win compensation — it's the devastating effect on your holiday.

How on earth do you tell the kids they're staying at home after all that anticipation?

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary should bear in mind the untold knock-on effects on families as he tries to fix his scheduling bungle.

Paying every penny of compensation owed to customers — and doing so automatically, rather than forcing people to claim on the airline's website (which keeps glitching) or costly phone line — should go without saying.

Tightwad: Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary should bear in mind the untold knock-on effects on families as he tries to fix his scheduling bungle

Yet, as we explain, you'd be mad to expect anything more than the absolute minimum from Ryanair. It is that stingy.

EU compensation rules barely cover money lost on car hire, let alone the misery of missing your honeymoon or an Ironman competition (an extra-long triathlon that one passenger will now forego after months of training). You can't put a price on that sort of disappointment — but it would help if Ryanair at least tried.

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HOW THIS IS MONEY CAN HELP

If true to form, O'Leary will resort to penny-pinching. My guess is he'll gamble that families who've scrimped all year for a holiday probably won't stomach paying an extra £50 or £100 per person to a rival airline next time they book.

No wonder standards have plummeted if meltdowns such as the ones at Ryanair and British Airways this summer don't bring greedy airlines back down to earth.

Booking ruse

STICKING with Ryanair, the issue at the heart of this week's chaos is the shameful disregard the airline has always had for customers.

Its latest booking ruse is a prime example. You now have to pay £4 per person to reserve a seat. Refuse, and you are 'randomly' allocated one.

Checking in for two people last month, I was allocated one at the front of the plane and another over the wing — despite there being several available next to each other. Ryanair then offered another chance to choose my seats . . . at £15 a pop.

A passenger on Twitter who had a similar experience ended up paying £65 for a group of five who were given separate seats on a plane that had 40 empty places.

Insulting doesn't even begin to describe it — let me know if you've suffered from similar rip-offs.

Data breach farce

Equifax, the credit scoring firm, still hasn't alerted the 400,000 British customers affected by its data breach in July. If you've ever used the service, my advice is to change all of your internet passwords.

The 50-day delay (so far) in notifying victims is unacceptable, given Equifax's past comments about responding swiftly to data breaches.

One email to journalists last October said: 'Whilst much focus is on preventative measures to avoid breaches . . . businesses also need to have the right steps in place should their customer data become compromised.'

Don't laugh yet — the email goes on to explain that 63 per cent of consumers 'would expect to be told of compromised data within a few hours'.

Another self-righteous email in 2015 stated matter-of-factly: 'Despite sustained campaigns by government, consumer bodies and other organisations, it appears some consumers continue to be reckless with their personal information, perhaps not realising just how little fraudsters need to take control of their accounts.'

Bear in mind that Equifax hackers have allegedly broken its security by using the word 'admin' as both the username and password. You couldn't make it up!

Pensions battle

An update on our battle to win pension freedoms for the five million retired savers abandoned by the Government last year.

Money Mail's Unlock Our Pensions campaign has argued that those who retired before savers were allowed to cash in their pots should be able to swap their annuities (monthly incomes for life) for a lump sum.

From conversations with senior sources, it has become clear we need Government intervention to make progress. Now MPs have returned from the Costas and Cornwall, I'll be holding meetings in Westminster to try to thrash out a deal. Watch this space.